New York, Day Two

OK, here are the photos and blathering about our second - and final - day in New York last weekend. So you only have to hear about it one more time. 😊

Saturday was another perfect weather day. On our way to breakfast at our favorite bagel place, I snapped this photo - I love clock towers, and this also shows what a beautiful sky greeted us early in the morning.

After breakfast, we walked south a bit and saw them setting up for the "Jameson Experience" since it was St. Patrick's Day weekend.

We had decided to spend the day before we headed to get the train home in Greenwich Village. I've never been there, and The Tim had been there, but it was years ago. So we got back onto the subway, and headed south. 

We had a fabulous time, walking around, people and dog watching, and just going places that looked interesting. One of our stops was the Stonewall Inn, someplace I've always wanted to see.

There was construction stuff everywhere, and a sign said they were opening a Visitor Center in June 2024. I would love to go back and see that sometime.

Then we headed to Washington Square Park for some sitting, and people and dog watching. It looked like everyone was having a good day.

Even more trees and flowers were getting ready to bloom! There was music, and a kind of crafts market, and some chess matches happening. I think every single bird in the New York area was there, singing loud and clear.

Last weekend was the first Greater Philly Yarn Crawl, which I was missing. So The Tim found us a yarn store in Greenwich Village!

West Village Knit & Needle was a teeny shop with lots of yarn and lots of [primarily] needlepoint supplies. The women who worked there were so lovely, and one of them had her dog there, so we got a dog fix as well!

Even though I had my Lent intention not to buy things, I broke it. I'm glad I did, since I found things that are not available around here; I still told myself that it was OK since I was on a trip (I can justify anything if I need to! 😂)

I asked about local products, and they directed me to some Japanese knot project bags - I decided to buy the one with the cherries and bananas. It's a nice size, and the workmanship is excellent!

And then I also bought some yarn:

This is from Life in the Long Grass, a brand from Cork, Ireland. Look at that green! Nowhere around here carries this yarn in person, and I've looked online at it, but never bought any. I decided that since it was my birthday weekend, St. Patrick's Day weekend, and green yarn from Ireland, I just *had* to buy it! (See justification comment above.) And I already have a plan for what I'll knit with it, so I don't feel like I bought yarn just to buy yarn. The Tim said to just consider it my mini-yarn crawl.

We also came across a really cute, small, but packed with good stuff bookstore, Three Lives & Co. Bookstore. I saw this book and decided that it sounded interesting - and anytime an Edward Gorey image is involved, count me in!

The justification for this one is that it allowed me to support a small, independent bookstore. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

The last place we stopped on our roaming around tour was Sullivan Street Tea & Spice Co. The smells were heavenly, and it was a really cute little shop with all kinds of interesting things to see (and inhale). This was where The Tim found some goodies.

We both love celadon pieces, and he found these pretty tea mugs, as well as this teabag holder.

Which is proof that I am not the only one in the family who likes cat/animal-themed things. 

All of these goodies fit just fine into our backpacks so we had nothing extra to carry with us on our way back to the train station. Neither of us had really planned to shop or buy anything, but we ended up finding items that were special, so what the heck?

Our trip back to Philadelphia on the train was very pleasant, and as much as we had a wonderful time, it was nice to be home with the kitties. A nice thing about an overnight trip is that unpacking is finished in about 20 minutes (I hate to unpack after a trip). I usually take St. Patrick's Day as a day off when I can, so I got to spend the day at home the next day, which was the perfect way to end the whole weekend. 

This weekend we will be staying put - which is a good thing, since it's supposed to be a day of heavy rain here tomorrow. I'd much rather spend a rainy day at home than have it interfere with plans on a trip.

I foresee a day of knitting, reading, and watching movies. I hope your weekend turns out to be one that agrees with you, too.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

 

From Everyone At Our House ...

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Have a good one, and celebrate that you can celebrate at all!

Report From Last Week

Well, I didn't mean to be incommunicado for so long - I didn't even realize until today that it had been a week since my last post!  I'm guessing that you all managed to survive nonetheless, so that's good ...

Since I couldn't come up with anything even close to ten things for this week's Ten on Tuesday, I decided to tell you about the highlights from my birthday week.  Due to a clerical error at work, I suddenly had five days of vacation I didn't have before - however, the catch was that I needed to use them before the end of March, or I would lose them.  The thought of LOSING vacation days is a complete anathema to me, and since I was planning to take my birthday and St. Patrick's Day off anyway, I decided to use last week for my five days.

It was amazing.  Not in any way that is thrilling to report, but it felt like a nice long time, and I found that I was sleeping better, not having anxiety attacks, not stress-eating - you get the picture.  What a lovely break it was, you know?  I just wish I had more vacation time in general so I could do it more often.  But I enjoyed it while it was there!

My birthday was lovely, if a little weird.  First of all, it turned really cold, and rained pretty hard all day long and into Tuesday morning.  Ick.  The Tim was not able to take the day off with me, which in and of itself was not a big deal, but he had to work inventory at the bookstore, which had been scheduled months ago, and no one was excused.  So he worked from 4:00 p.m. on Monday until about 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning!  As a result, we went out for a lovely birthday lunch instead of dinner, and had birthday cake before he left for work.  Then on Tuesday, he slept for a while (obviously) and then had to work the closing shift that night (3:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m.) - so I was on my own for most of Tuesday.  But I got a lot of reading done, got a haircut, and hung out with Dug and the kitties. Very nice.

Thursday I made a batch of Irish Soda Bread, which turned out particularly well.  I also met a friend whom I seldom get to see for lunch, and we had such a great time catching up!  She can really only meet during the week until about 2:00, and not on the weekends at all, due to being the primary caregiver for her husband, so we don't get to talk in person very often.  We had a lot of laughs and some pretty amazing food.

Saturday, it was St. Joseph's Day, so we headed to Termini Brothers in South Philadelphia to get a couple of zeppoles.

SO YUMMY!!!  (We had ours that night with a cup of hot tea.)

After that, I stopped at Loop to see the spinning exhibition they were having.  I am fascinated by spinning, and would love to know how.  They are having a three-Saturday spinning class since there was so much interest, so I signed up.  I sincerely doubt I'll ever become an amazing spinner, but I would at least like to know the basics.

Then on Sunday morning I met with another friend for coffee and some knitting.  After which I went home and watched a couple of March Madness basketball games.  Some of my favorites were already out of it by Sunday, but some advanced, so it was a good day overall.  :-)

Now of course, it's back to the usual, though Easter is this weekend (how is it here already?), and my niece and her husband will be visiting from Baltimore, so I have something to look forward to; plus, I am trying to come up with designs that are actually doable for me for the Inappropriate Easter Egg decorating that will ensue.  I have lots of ideas, but since I am not too great at drawing, I end up letting most of them drop by the wayside.

I hope someday that I will have the chance to take an unexpected, nice long break again.  Sometimes not having all kinds of things planned for every minute makes the time even more enjoyable, you know?

Finally, a huge THANK YOU for all of your kind birthday wishes!  I so enjoyed reading them, and it was a lovely bright spot on such a rainy day.  Thank you thank you thank you!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May flowers always line your path,

And sunshine light your day.

May songbirds serenade you,

Every step along the way.

May a rainbow run beside you,

In a sky that's always blue.

And may happiness fill your heart,

Each day your whole life through.

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks.

May your heart be as light as a song.

May each day bring you bright, happy hours,

That stay with you all the year long.

The Ides of March

This week has been so weird.

It started with me going to the dentist this past Monday.  The tooth that I broke over the summer in The Big Fall, which has subsequently been repaired, started bothering me.  By last weekend, I was in incredible pain, and called the emergency line at my dentist's office.  He suggested I call on Monday morning, and tell them to "squeeze" me in to the schedule. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely NOT a root canal in the back of my front tooth!  Needless to say, even with pain meds, it was not pleasant.

Tuesday, I had a morning of marathon meetings at work.  I mean, straight through from 9:00 until 12:30.  On top of which I was not feeling great (see above paragraph).  Ugh.

Wednesday and Thursday were a bit of a fog, due to a) pain, and b) tiredness, so I feel like I missed them altogether.

Friday, two colleagues took me out to lunch (nice), and then we had a meeting with our VP - at 4:00 ON A FRIDAY (are you kidding me!).  Fortunately, it went better than expected.

Yesterday was my birthday!  It poured rain all day.  Poured.  It was also the funeral for a police officer killed a little more than a week ago, and it was held in an area very close to our neighborhood.  I felt so bad for the whole family, but especially for the officer's 10-year old son.  He'd been on patrol and stopped in a Game Stop store to buy a gift for his son, whose birthday was on the 9th, when the store was robbed, and there was gunfight, killing the officer.  This is all bad enough, but I know from experience that having your father's funeral be on a day when the weather is awful only makes it suck more.  God bless the officer and his family.  My heart breaks for the whole situation.

And even though I felt awful for them, life does go on, and I had a good birthday. The Tim baked me a lovely cake, we went out for lunch, and I received great gifts.  I acutely felt my luck, even more than usual.  This next year will be the last in my fifties.  That seems rather unbelievable.

Today, we took Dug and walked up to the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  It was terribly disorganized this year, so not as enjoyable, but we had a good time, Dug got LOTS of attention, and it was nice for a change to be somewhere where we actually blended in to the crowd.  :-)

I saved up extra hours and so I have Monday and Tuesday of this week off as well.  I am looking forward to it, for a number of reasons.

Here's hoping that your week ended on a good note as well.  :-)